Technology tofit your needs

The more we know about energy performance, the more we can make energy-efficient solutions.

Our Technology

It ends with the earth.

Erda uses the earth as your heating and cooling energy battery that never loses its charge. After evaluating your total energy needs, we use our technology to redirect waste energy streams and work towards a zero-carbon energy solution.

Since everyone uses energy differently, we’ve developed broad approaches to integrate heating and cooling energy into your energy infrastructure. Many of our clients find that a hybridised solution is best, drawing from our experience to arrive at the most effective solution.

How it works:

The use of low-enthalpy heating and high-enthalpy cooling energy, and subsequent transfer to a useful grade via heat pump technology, allows you to capture energy from more sources / sinks.

Boost works based on efficient heat pumps transferring low-grade energy to one which is useful within buildings (either heating or cooling). The versatility of heat pumps allows you to make use of energy which is otherwise lost or wasted.

For example, a solar thermal array designed to deliver direct energy. Once demand is satisfied the thermal array becomes stranded, having to wait for further demand. With connection to Erda | boost this asset would continue to capture energy and deliver it to a network for storage. Or, you may be located next to a lake or river offering you a constant source of reliable energy that can be combined with Erda | deep to capture more energy.

Why it’s smart.

Erda | boost is designed to capture as much thermal energy as possible from heat recovery or renewable sources and give your performance a boost. This involves integrating a wide variety of sources, from processes which generate waste to renewable sources such as a river or lake. It’s smart because these sources often have a low cost to integrate, but while they cannot offer sufficient energy alone, they can contribute a long-term cost-effective energy supply when situated within an Erda system.

Erda | boost is smart as it’s also a tool to integrate and improve the operation of traditional technologies such as CHP. By providing a low-enthalpy sink you have the opportunity to improve the overall system performance, reducing or eliminating waste. These hybrid systems are a smart transition path from business as usual to a zero-carbon future.

How it works:

Erda | cool chooses the optimum path of the refrigerant discharge from compressors, in real time, to ensure the refrigeration system is as efficient as possible. It ensures that energy is recovered as needed, as well as controlling the condenser or gas cooler fan speed, and the flow rate of Erda fluid through the heat exchangers. All parameters are controlled to ensure fail-safe reliability while enhancing total system efficiency.

Why it’s smart.

This control methodology is equally useful for natural or HFC refrigerant systems, and for CO2 it’s particularly helpful in enabling the system to run stably and sub-critically, bringing significant improvements to efficiency. By smart adjustment of fan speeds and Erda fluid flow through the system, Erda | cool controls the energy balance in the short, medium and long term.

By using the air and earth you only get the energy needed by the system, but still add efficiency to the rejection of any surplus. Using two condensers in series, the overall condensing regime is more stable and more efficient.

How it works:

Erda | deep is a directionally drilled, steel-cased, coaxial ground coupled heat exchanger (GCHE) that is fixed into place by a high thermal conductivity grout. It works by circulating a working fluid from the application into a central tube, all the way to the bottom of the heat exchanger, and then raising it to the surface again in contact with an effective energy-exchange surface.

The coaxial nature of the design ensures the primary energy exchanges are at the lowest point of the GCHE – at the point of maximum separation from the rest of the array.

Why it’s smart.

Smart design: Greater surface area combined with smarter use of material properties for energy exchange; higher fluid-carrying capacity with lower hydraulic resistance; the greatest separation distances at the point where the most energy exchange is undertaken. Predictable, stable, reliable.

These design features minimise unwanted thermal interaction with other GCHEs, and thermal short-circuiting within the heat exchanger – maximising its effectiveness. Erda | deep is capable of serving greater energy loads with fewer boreholes, opening greater market potential for geo-exchange solutions. A smart alternative to fossil-fuel based systems.

Smart installation: The materials and techniques used by Erda | deep allow it to be installed with confidence that the installed capacity will be achieved. This also means Erda | deep can be installed anywhere – without the need for a test hole. Inclined heat exchangers increase the potential application to any given site, reduced surface area with an expanded subterranean array allows for installation flexibility without any design compromise.

How it works:

Thermal energy should be a two-way street, not a single-vector burn-and-consume process. This sharing of energy can turn buildings into energy assets. Taking energy from a fluid to heat a building leaves a colder fluid. This energy source is an asset to a building needing cooling – who will in return share with you their heat.

Erda Energy approach this dynamically – knowing some demands will be constant, and some will fluctuate means that we not only share demand, but we also share supply across a connected network focused on energy rather than just heat.

Our controls at the building and network level ensure we prioritise and optimise efficiency at the local level and then operate a network which balances the needs of all.

Why it’s smart.

Sharing your heating and cooling energy needs with other buildings will make the whole network more efficient. Thinking of energy as a community creates a greater opportunity to share resources and augment the efficiency of each individual property. Working together, multiple users can share initial costs and see immediate returns.

When we combine the energy needs of a community with Erda | deep technology, we can time-shift energy supply and demand across the network, yielding a powerful solution for minimising energy waste, and providing the surplus energy demands from many renewable sources.

Unlike a traditional burn-and-consume network, scaling this network up is simple. Instead of a new connection just taking energy, it has a chance to contribute, meaning there is not an automatic increase in the plant or equipment needed to serve that network, and that new supply, demand, sink or source connections can be flexibly added into the network.

How it works:

It works by realising that the plant and equipment of an Erda Energy system is just the beginning. By being smarter with that plant and equipment you can achieve more cost, energy and carbon savings.

Erda | smart manages the secure collection of data from your solution, and safely stores it for performance analysis, as well as real-time monitoring and operational event handling. System owners have access to our Erda | smart platform, complete with tailored KPIs, reports and branding, for full visibility of the performance of your Erda Energy system. From these analytics you will gain key insights into the behaviour of your property or network. With this insight, you can do more.

It works by knowing what’s going on around it, such as the state of the system or network it serves or the condition of those networks which serve it, and it has the ability to work in synergy with them.

Why it’s smart.

Knowing what your asset is doing, and being able to do more with it, is always smarter. Gathering big data and consolidating this into the key metrics important to your system allows Erda Energy to do more with your system. Smart lets you do this.

With Erda Energy your heating and cooling needs are met by a balance of renewable energy and electrical energy. Grids around the world are facing huge new challenges from renewable generation technology – but Erda | smart can help with this. With greater insight into the way your building operates, we can help you integrate into demand-side management programmes, leveraging the flexibility of your building to help the grid, and generating additional revenue streams.

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